1. Field of Art
This disclosure generally relates to wired communications in electronic devices and, more particularly, to a sense amplifier implemented in a receiving device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many electronic systems include integrated circuits (chips) that communicate with each other. For example in a computer, integrated circuits such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) communicate with a central processing unit (CPU), and graphics processing unit (GPU). To enable communication between two or more different integrated circuits, a transmitter in one integrated circuit transmits signals to a receiver in another integrated circuit via an interconnect.
Generally, a receiver structure (or circuit) is limited in terms of input speed (or frequency) range because the conventional receiver structure is optimized either for receiving high-speed or low-speed signals. Therefore, to receive wide speed range of input signal, multiple receivers are employed in the conventional receiver structure, where each receiver is optimized for a different operating speed. This results in an increased overall area and, hence, cost of implementation.
Moreover, many receiver structures suffer from insufficient voltage headroom because of low supply voltages used in advanced fabrication processes. As a result, these receiver structures operate with a narrow input common mode range, and dissipate high power from the power supply. In addition, the insufficient voltage headroom in such receiver structures tend to result in poor data rates, bit error rates, sensitivity to supply noise, and lack of flexibility in input signal swing.